Harold Fannin Jr. fantasy owners will be blessed in the fantasy football playoffs. Go pick him up if he’s available!
One of the toughest positions to shore up in fantasy football is the tight end position. With few truly “elite” options and everyone else fighting over the rest of the scraps. It’s rare that anybody available in Week 10 or later is able to produce at a fairly high level weekly, and it’s even more rare to find those players when the playoffs start. This year, though, there is one player who fits the mold and is probably still available: Harold Fannin Jr.
David Njoku Injury Update
As if his current role in the offense wasn’t enough reason to lean on Fannin, the David Njoku injury status helps his outlook as well. In their Week 14 matchup against the Tennessee Titans, Njoku hurt his knee on his one-yard touchdown catch. He was limited to just six snaps in the game.
As of now, the Cleveland Browns have no update on the status of David Njoku moving forward. Even when he has played, it’s clear that Fannin has taken Njoku’s role. If Njoku were to miss time, that would only open up more opportunities for Fannin in the Browns’ passing game.
Harold Fannin Jr. Fantasy Outlook: Pick Him Up!
The name of the game in fantasy football, especially when the playoffs come around, is to have a solid floor for production at every “weak” position you have, and have your stars ball out and be the difference makers. With tight end being such a tricky position to solve, the best tight ends are the ones that play a lot of snaps and see consistent targets. While targets don’t guarantee receptions (see Emeka Egbuka), they do make it much less likely they flop in any certain week.
Outside of his low ownership percentage, the thing that makes Fannin so tantalizing is that he plays a lot of snaps and sees a lot of consistent targets as well. Since Week 3, Fannin has played more than 70% of the offensive snaps in nine of 10 games and 75% or more in seven games. Last week, Harold Fannin Jr. fantasy owners enjoyed him playing nearly 90% of the snaps due to the David Njoku injury. It may be an extremely simple concept, but players need to be on the field to generate points, and it’s clear that Fannin has a place on the field for the Browns.
In addition to the snaps, Fannin has seen plenty of targets over the year. While some rookies take a while to get acclimated to the NFL or their team’s systems, Fannin got off to the races immediately, catching seven of nine targets for 63 yards in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions. Although his production did drop the next three weeks, he has gone right back to solid production ever since. In nine games since Week 4, Fannin has scored double-digit fantasy points in five weeks. In that same stretch, he has also drawn six or more targets in five of those games.
Even though he’s flown largely under the radar for fantasy, he’s still TE6 heading into Week 15. While it can certainly be a coin toss as to whether or not he goes “off” or is a “boom” from week to week, his floor with his high snap count and solid target totals makes him a really good option for teams that may have the biggest weakness at tight end.
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Fantasy Football Players to Drop for Harold Fannin
The hard part for every “add” in fantasy football is who to drop. The nice thing about this point in the season is that rosters can now shrink. If you’re in the playoffs, stashing running backs or wide receivers who were once useful in bye weeks or injury scenarios holds little value now. With just a few weeks left until the season is over, the unfortunate reality is that if one of your starters gets hurt, you’re probably screwed, whether you start that stashed player on your bench or not. For that reason, there are plenty of players who you may not usually drop that you can feel free to let go at this point in the season.
Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles
As much as we’d all like for him to be a thing, he’s not, and he won’t be for the rest of the year. With five straight games with double-digit fantasy points in PPR leagues to start the season, it looked like he could be the diamond in the rough at the tight end position. Unfortunately, his production has fallen off a cliff since then. Since his first five weeks which he scored five touchdowns, Goedert has scored just two in his last seven games, with both of those coming against the New York Giants in Week 8.
Simply put, this Philadelphia Eagles passing attack is much to inconsistent. Whether you want to blame Jalen Hurts, the offensive coordinator, or something else, the point still stands that Goedert cannot be trusted come playoff time. With four weeks where Goedert has scored just four fantasy points since Week 6, his floor is much too low to be able to rely on him come playoff time.
Dalton Schult, Houston Texans
Let it be known that this is absolutely not an indictment of Dalton Schultz as a player. With that in mind, it’s important to understand what he is when it comes to his fantasy value. He has indeed hit double figures in five of eight games since his Week 6 bye. Unfortunately, it is also true that in the other three games, he combined to score just 13.4 points in PPR leagues. He usually gets a fair amount of targets, but they aren’t always reliable.
The more pressing issue with Schultz is his lack of a ceiling as well. Although he has racked up 84 targets and 62 receptions for 574 yards this season, he has just one receiving touchdown. Dalton Schultz may go off on any given week, but with almost no touchdown value, which severely limits his ceiling, and his incredibly inconsistent production this season, playing Schultz is quite the gamble.
Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
If it weren’t for Mark Andrews’ past success, nobody would be holding onto him right now. Slotting in at TE15, Andrews is the definition of unreliable. In 13 games so far, Andrews has three or fewer receptions in nine games. In only two games, way back in Weeks 3 and 4, has Andrews had more than four receptions in a game. If that wasn’t bad enough, while he does have five touchdown receptions, those came in just three games.
So, to quickly summarize Andrews, not only is his floor non-existent, but his ceiling is only high if he catches two touchdowns (which is hard when you have more than four receptions in just two games). There is no reason to keep Andrews on your team anymore outside of dynasty formats. While he may have done something for you in past seasons, it’s well past time to cut your losses with Andrews.
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